Here We Are!

Welcome to some of our regular long-term MasterCourse students who want to join in to the Challenge to participate in the Forum:

Lewis from Palm Beach, Florida, USAVirginia from Nelson, British Colombia, CanadaDanny from Dublin, IrelandPez from Portsmouth, EnglandKatriona from Cambridge, England

NOTE that this map is not automatically generated, so if you do update your city, please tell me you did so, using the chat button at bottom right.

In order to support your rapid learning, we are including the KnowledgeBase with the MasterCourse Challenge. This enables you to quickly look up any unfamiliar or forgotten terms. The KnowledgeBase works like Wikipedia, it’s a hyperlinked text Encyclopedia of every term of tango movement (with images and short video clips where necessary). If something is missing, please let us know!

You’ll find the KnowledgeBase terms in the sidebar of every Challenge Session or you can click the logo wherever you see it to visit the KnowledgeBase directly.

The 5 Biomechanical Tools Video

A couple of weeks ago I made a little exercise series –with fashion tips. Just for fun…

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Technical issues:

If the “Current Sessions” section is blank, you are not logged in. If you have trouble with your credentials, use the button at bottom right to chat with me.

The internet is BUSY right now. If you receive a 503 error, nothing is broken. There is just too much traffic at some point along the route between you and here. I find that waiting 3-5 minutes and then reloading is adequate. Any other errors, please bring to my attention.

Having difficulty with playback of the videos? Touch the gear icon on the video and choose a lower resolution. Here is Vimeo’s guide for choosing resolution in sync with your home’s internet bandwidth.

No emails? Not even in junkmail folder? The Forge is caught in your email provider’s algorithm. Please learn how to “whitelist” (Erwünscht-Liste) TangoForge.com with your email provider: web.de, gmx.de, outlook, hotmail. For gmail, supposedly adding a sender to your address book will prevent blocks.

Anatomical Terminology:We seek to provide instruction in objective, scientific terms. This will be unfamiliar at first, but our students catch on quickly. At any point, you can visit the Exercise Center to review the 10 key tango muscles and their control exercises.

Tango Language:Before creating the MasterCourse, we spent years documenting tango concepts and disaggregating terminology. If you are confused about what something means, or why we use the term we do, you can visit the KnowledgeBase for reference.

The Structure: The MasterCourse is a comprehensive tour of the entire Lexicon of Tango inherited from the 1940s. It is organized balancing three goals:

We draw on 8 years of teaching to create the most effective revelation of technique and systems by linking elements together based on their functional/biomechanical relationships.

We use traditional terms as much as possible to synchronize with what you learn elsewhere.

We distill to make tango graspable without losing any detail.

How to Learn:We believe that tango has been mystified and students have been disempowered. Watch each video here to build your confidence in understanding of how tango works. Then practice each part of the video with a partner at home or at a practica. Prepare for each practice section by taking notes on the video or writing down the exact section you want to practice.

Close Embrace:We show the movements in open embrace and quite large, so that it’s possible to see on the video. The technique in close embrace is exactly the same.

Technical Support:Your enrollment includes technical support. If you have any kind of question, do not hesitate to send an email to office@TangoForge.com or use the chat function at the lower right corner of your screen. We answer personally within 24 hours.

The MasterCourse is a complete documentation of TangoForge Pedagogy, covering every Element in the Tango Lexicon.
The Lexicon of Tango is the repertoire of 25 Elements and their variations inherited from the 1940s. Until the mid-1990s, tango was understood in groups of steps, or sequences. The Cochabamba Investigation Group analyzed tango and identified the basic elements, from which dancers can compose. Dancing from the elements empowers dancers to to express every music, challenge partners to maintain intense concentration, and use space skillfully for better floorcraft.